Students’ Perception and Preference for Online Education in UBKV during COVID-19

COVID-19 has disrupted the academic calendar in all educational institutions across the world. Educational institutes remained closed during the pandemic and were forced to shift to online learning. Online education has become the main method of instruction and we could understand the preparedness of the institutes to deal with such situations. Technical constraints like the availability of devices and the internet were commonly observed throughout the country. After 1.5 years of online education, an online survey was conducted with a structured questionnaire and sent through google format to 80 students of Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya to explore the perception and preference of students for online education. The study attempted to find out different attributes per students’ preferences which might help in designing appropriate e-learning platforms and environments for students to use in the future. The findings of the study revealed that students preferred laptops and mobile phones along with mobile data more for attending online classes. They preferred recorded lectures with study material over simply attending live online classes. They preferred a total of 2-4 classes per day, especially in the morning hours, of 45 min to 1 hr duration with 15 minutes of breaks between the classes. Regarding their queries addressal, they preferred all platforms like live chat during the class, email, and WhatsApp. The majority preferred online exams and suggested including objective and subjective questions. Students perceived online education as more flexible and believe it has greatly improved their technical skills. However, they mentioned less scope of interaction among the respondents and with the instructors as one of the major obstacles to effective learning. It was also found that self-discipline among the students impacts a lot on the outcome. Respondents found that instructors can effectively use the online platform for online teaching. They also believed that they get more time for self-study and are more comfortable asking and responding to questions by email than orally. Therefore, it is recommended to consider all these factors while developing an online education system to make it more convenient, effective, and acceptable.